


Engage

by anthean



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Thrawn Series - Timothy Zahn (2017)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Cultural Differences, Happy Sex, M/M, Multiple Orgasms, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn with Feelings, Second Time, Thrawn tries to wreck Eli and accidentally wrecks himself instead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 09:51:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18658015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthean/pseuds/anthean
Summary: Thrawn and Eli are in love, and they have sex about it. For almost 7,000 words.That's it, that's the fic.





	Engage

**Author's Note:**

> thanks are due to 13th_blackbird, for telling me where to put the feelings.

The meeting was stretching into its second hour, and little had been decided. Not unexpected, but still, it rankled. Under the table, Thrawn shifted his legs unobtrusively and flexed his feet as far as they would go in his boots, trying to speed his sluggish circulation. He made sure no sign of his discomfort showed on his face--a tedious but necessary deception.

A series of graphs and charts were projected above the table, shimmering blue in the low light: tables mapping fuel efficiencies, computationally-modelled attack vectors, elegant equations. It had taken several years (“Long enough to forget who was responsible,” Eli muttered in the back of Thrawn’s mind), but the Navy had recently taken an active interest in the would-be Umbaran insurgents’ use of vulture droids. A captain with an interest in data analytics had been advocating for modifications to the Navy’s standard TIE engagement strategies based on Thrawn’s after-action reports.

A fascinating proposal, and one that Thrawn would relish considering. But not at this moment: not surrounded by unimaginative Navy thinkers jockeying for political position, not in the second hour of a meeting that need take a quarter of that time.

And not with Eli seated to his immediate left, a presence that Thrawn could not ignore, like a hand resting on his shoulder.

Eli, who had come to him late the previous night, his distress burnished by resolve; who had opened his mouth hungrily against Thrawn’s; who had clutched at Thrawn’s shoulders as they stumbled backwards against the desk; whose soft cry at the moment of climax had undone Thrawn so thoroughly that he had followed Eli within seconds.

They had clung to each other for a long time afterwards, struggling to stay afloat.

“I don’t care,” Eli had muttered into Thrawn’s neck. “Gods, I don’t care.”

He kissed along Thrawn’s jaw, and Thrawn returned his kisses hazily. How had Eli taken him so completely by surprise? How had Thrawn been so ignorant of Eli’s feelings that a late-night ambush in his own office had become necessary?

Because he had been so focused on concealing his own emotions. From Eli, from his officers, from a Navy whose hierarchical conventions he still stumbled over. An inexcusable lapse in perception. Eli’s impetuosity had done them both a service.

“ _Eli_ ,” Thrawn had said, and Eli had trembled in his arms.

Now, the curve of the table positioned Eli barely within Thrawn’s peripheral vision. Thrawn sat back, just slightly, and tilted his head as though examining a chart in more detail. The movements brought Eli half a degree further into Thrawn’s sight, enough that he could consider Eli while maintaining the pretense of attention.

Eli leaned slightly forward on the table, the shape of his shoulder blades visible through his uniform, and studied the projected graphics with every appearance of total enthrallment. He rested one hand lightly on his datapad, and every few seconds his fingers twitched--in interest? Boredom?

Thrawn saw the moment when Eli noticed his regard: Eli’s breath caught on the inhale, and his eyes flickered towards Thrawn for a split second before refocusing on the graphs.

The human eye really was a remarkable source of information regarding attention, mood, intent, Thrawn reflected: the contrast between the colorful iris and white sclera made eye movements, however small, immediately obvious. It was not so for the Chiss. And Eli’s dark eyes were particularly enjoyable to watch, whether he was scanning a data matrix for a crucial piece of information or spotting a critical environmental discrepancy that would necessitate a change in tactics.

Thrawn was less sensitive to color than humans were, but he had more acute low-light vision: it was enough to see Eli’s pupils dilate slightly, a response usually indicative of increased attention or cognitive engagement--or sexual arousal.

Eli shifted in his seat, spreading his legs a few centimeters, and typed a quick line on his datapad.

A notification appeared on Thrawn’s own datapad:

 _< Message:LtCm.Vanto.Eli>_ _Scheduled private comm consultation at 1645. Would you like to reschedule?_

Five minutes from now, and the comm consult entirely fictional. Thrawn allowed himself a small internal smile, a frisson of illicit heat. He had suspected the direction of Eli’s thoughts lay parallel to his own--the minute changes in Eli’s posture spoke loudly of his distraction and arousal--and to have those suspicions confirmed was pleasantly stimulating.

He admired Eli’s subtlety as well. Eli had provided them with an excuse to leave while ensuring that anyone who might read the message--in theory secure, but Thrawn knew better than to trust that any Imperial communications were truly unmonitored--would see nothing untoward, and at the same time blocked off a period of time where the two of them could expect to be undisturbed.

Yes--another notification popped up on the datapad, this one an automatic reminder for a comm consult that had, apparently, been on his schedule for the last three days. Neatly done.

Eli’s facial glow had increased slightly, but there was no change to his expression or posture to reflect what Thrawn knew must be a growing agitation, a burgeoning arousal.

After a few minutes, he angled his body towards Thrawn and tilted his head subtly to the door, entirely congruent with the behavior of an aide trying to keep his supervisor to a tight schedule.

No matter: the meeting was breaking up at last, officers rising from their seats and trying to stretch their legs without belying their discomfort, aides collecting datapads and mugs of caf.

“Lieutenant Commander Vanto, with me,” Thrawn said, handing his own datapad to Eli and drawing him away from where another aide was trying to engage him in conversation. The aide shot Eli a sympathetic look, which he returned with a polite smile before taking his place at Thrawn’s side.

Eli was quiet as they walked back to Thrawn’s quarters, but his silence did not imply a lack of tension. No, Thrawn felt it radiating off him like the heat that glowed from his face. It was like standing next to an engine, that hot thrumming energy. Thrawn’s body responded, fed it back, and Eli’s steps quickened by the slightest fraction.

Thrawn kept his measured pace. No need to draw attention. No need to rush.

He locked the door behind them when they finally reached his quarters, switching on the privacy indicator before turning to where Eli stood before his desk.

Eli smiled at him hesitantly, his eyes fixed on Thrawn’s face. His chest lifted as he inhaled a little deeper, and he took half a step forward.

“Commander Vanto,” Thrawn said, and Eli stepped back again. Confusion showed on his face for the briefest instant--human microexpressions were another remarkable source of information, once Thrawn had learned to read them--before his features smoothed and his expression became professional.

Excellent. There was pleasure in anticipation. And to keep Eli wondering, to watch him adapt, to string him out until he was begging...well, that would be pleasurable too. A course of action beneficial to both parties. Thrawn was pleased.

He held out his hand and Eli passed him the datapad without hesitation. A few keypresses brought up one of the graphs that had been discussed at the meeting--the relationship between the standard TIE attack formations and fuel efficiency. Elegantly presented, but Thrawn suspected a flaw lay hidden beneath the smoothly-visualized correlation matrices.

“Your opinion, Commander,” he said, passing the datapad to Eli.

Eli set the datapad on the desk so they could both see it and leaned closer, his mouth turning down in concentration. He cheeks were still slightly flushed, but the glow was fading as his mind turned from thoughts of sex to contemplation of the patterns before him. To Thrawn, it was almost as arousing: to see the flicker of thought reflected on Eli’s face, to imagine the patterns and connections being identified and manipulated.

Almost.

“It’s pretty slick, sir,” Eli said. He frowned and pressed a few keys, bringing up an extensive data matrix.

“The original data?” Thrawn asked.

“You know me, sir, I like to use my own regressors,” Eli said absently. The datapad cast a blue glow onto his face. His eyes jumped to Thrawn, then darted back down.

“Conclusions?” Thrawn asked, taking a step nearer.

Eli glanced up again and a faint smile crossed his lips. “I’d agree with most of the conclusions we were presented with,” he said. “But I think Captain Bisby may have massaged his data just a bit. I don’t get the same numbers for the acceleration coefficients if I--I--”

His voice trailed off as Thrawn placed two fingers on his throat, right where his pulse hammered just below the skin.

Eli swallowed, and the brief play of muscle lanced through the thick leather of Thrawn’s gloves as though they were the thinnest silk, raced up his arm to set a fire smouldering deep within him.

Seducing a subordinate was forbidden in the Imperial Navy, Thrawn knew: an issue less of morality and more of maintaining order in the ranks. If they were caught, there would be severe consequences. These would be unpleasant for Thrawn, who suspected he was still useful enough to the Emperor to retain a position adjacent to the Navy if not within it. But the consequences would be disastrous for Eli.

The Chiss perspective on romantic or sexual relationships within the chain of command was considerably different. Such relationships were permitted, even encouraged, within specific unspoken parameters. It was appropriate that Eli had initiated their first encounter; this was thought to minimize the potential for abuse, although that was not always the case.

He had not expected to find--companionship, he would call it--in the Empire, had not considered how he would navigate the alien societal norms. And when it came to Eli, the urge to treat their relationship as though it were between two Chiss was overwhelming.

Selfish. But not unacceptably risky. He felt Eli would agree. Had already agreed, in the dark of Thrawn’s office. _“Gods, I don’t care.”_

Another parameter of engagement within Chiss hierarchical relationships, particularly exclusively sexual ones, was the expectation that the subordinate participant would receive as much or more sexual satisfaction from the encounter than did the superior. What was between him and Eli was far more than merely sexual, Thrawn believed, but nevertheless he had done a poor job of ensuring that parameter was met.

He could rectify that now.

“Continue,” he said.

Eli exhaled noisily and dragged his eyes away from Thrawn’s face to focus back on the datapad. “--if I apply a more stringent correction overlay,” he said.

His voice shook slightly, but he disguised it well. Thrawn didn’t know which pleased him more.

“Plus, they were using median splits for some of their predictor variables,” Eli continued.

“Is that a problem?” Thrawn asked. He let his thumb brush the front of Eli’s neck and pulled Eli’s right hand gently away from the datapad, and was rewarded with a slight hitch in Eli’s breathing.

“It’s not a _problem_ ,” Eli said, and Thrawn nearly laughed at the war between sexual arousal and professional offense that was playing out in Eli’s tone. “It just means their models aren’t as predictive as they could be.”

“Interesting,” Thrawn said.

And it was, but he had other things on his mind. He lifted Eli’s hand and licked along the base of his thumb, then sucked the digit fully into his mouth, the leather of Eli’s glove smooth and cool on his tongue.

“ _Gods_ ,” Eli breathed. His wrist tensed under Thrawn’s fingers. “Gods, sir. Thrawn?” His eyes closed for a moment, as though he couldn’t keep them open.

Thrawn released Eli’s thumb, sliding it along his lower lip and leaving a sheen of saliva on the black leather. “ _Eli_ ,” he said, watching Eli’s mouth fall open slightly. Thrawn pulled the glove off and dropped it to the floor. “What adjustments would you suggest?” he asked, and licked the thin web of skin at the base of Eli’s thumb and forefinger.

“What?” Eli choked out. “Wh--is that really what you want to talk about right now?”

Thrawn didn’t reply; his mouth was busy and the question was rhetorical.

Eli sighed, a long shaky rush of air. “Of course it is,” he said.

Thrawn nodded against Eli’s palm and slipped the fingers of his other hand under Eli’s collar, stroking the delicate skin there before undoing the uppermost clasp of Eli’s tunic.

Eli stepped closer to Thrawn and lifted his free hand to rest on Thrawn’s waist, just above his belt. “More stringent correction overlays,” he said, lifting his head so his mouth lay close to Thrawn’s ear. Thrawn obligingly bent his head, the better to feel the heat of Eli’s breath. “Better representation of variable type and measures of central tendency. A token effort at correcting for multiple comparisons.” His fingers tightened at Thrawn’s waist. “Among others. Is that enough? Will you kiss me now?”

Thrawn gave Eli’s fingers a final nip, then turned his head and brushed a kiss along the side of Eli’s mouth, pulling back when Eli chased him to deepen the kiss.

“ _Not_ what I meant,” Eli said, his voice shading towards petulant.

This time Thrawn allowed a laugh to escape him. “Then you will have to be specific,” he said, or tried to: Eli had grabbed his head and yanked him down into a kiss before he’d gotten more than three words out.

Eli’s lips were hot against Thrawn’s, his mouth opening immediately as he tilted his head and drank Thrawn down, his hands buried in Thrawn’s hair and firm against his skull. It was heady, the softness of Eli’s mouth and the ardour with which he pressed their bodies together, the way his hands clutched at Thrawn, holding him in place.

Thrawn allowed himself a moment--two, actually--to indulge in the kiss, then pulled away. Eli’s hands had started to wander, stroking across Thrawn’s back and down his sides, toying at his belt and groping for the edge of his tunic.

That would not do: Thrawn was developing a plan for how he wished this liaison to proceed, and it did not involve him disrobing quite yet.

No doubt Eli was formulating his own plan, and was already implementing it--his insistent kiss was proof enough of that. Thrawn looked forward to it. The give and take, advance and retreat, of ships and armies in battle were a constant joy and fascination. It would be an equal joy to find that balance in the space between two bodies, with not an enemy but an ally as a partner.

Enough reflection: Eli had found the clasp of his belt and was starting to work it loose. Thrawn leaned in and bit the side of Eli’s neck sharply, eliciting a gasp and an appreciative groan, and moved Eli’s hands away while he was distracted.

“Not yet,” he said, and got a finger under the sealing strip of Eli’s tunic, sliding it down to pull the tunic open.

“Why not-oh,” Eli said. “Oh, you have a _plan_. Should I be worried?” He bit the underside of Thrawn’s jaw, worrying the skin there for a moment.

The bite seared down Thrawn’s body, like all his nerves were primed to that one spot where Eli’s teeth met his throat. He whimpered, the smallest sound, and Eli’s teeth clenched momentarily harder before releasing him. He swayed forward into Eli’s arms before recovering himself.

“I have...a sketch,” he managed, his voice hoarse.

Eli captured his mouth in a kiss before he could continue, hands sneaking back down to Thrawn’s belt. Thrawn pushed Eli’s tunic off his shoulders and down his arms in response, and Eli broke the kiss as he struggled to free himself. Thrawn stepped back and observed.

Eli looked undone. One glove missing, the bare hand damp with saliva and bearing the marks of Thrawn’s teeth. Another bite mark on his neck, above the collar--Thrawn should have been more careful, and yet the evidence of where his mouth had touched Eli’s skin sent a spark of electricity dancing through him. Eli’s hair mussed; his eyes wide and glassy; the collar of his undershirt askew; his erection, no longer hidden by the long tunic, hard enough to tent the stiff fabric of his uniform trousers.

Eli shook himself free of the tunic, ridding himself of the second glove in the process, and let both fall carelessly to the floor. He reached out, but Thrawn put a hand on his chest and pushed him towards the bedroom door.

“So, your sketch,” Eli said breathlessly once they had reached the bedroom and shut the door behind them.

Thrawn took him by the shoulders and shoved him backwards until he collapsed on the bed with a small huff of expelled breath, looking up at Thrawn expectantly. Thrawn gazed back at him, long enough for a blush to begin rising on Eli’s chest, then sank deliberately to his knees on the floor between Eli’s legs.

Eli sighed faintly. Thrawn placed his hands on his knees to push them a little wider, then stroked up his thighs and around the curves of his hips.

“As you know, I need less sleep than you do,” he said once he’d gathered himself a little: the sight of Eli looking down at him, mouth slack with arousal, had been more affecting than he’d anticipated. “Following your departure last night, I spent some time researching human sexuality. Physiological arousal, erogenous zones.”

Eli kissed him then, tilting his chin up with one hand and twining the other in his hair. “I should have stayed,” he murmured when the kiss broke several breathless moments later. “Damn my early shift, I should have stayed.”

An image of Eli curled asleep in his bed flashed through Thrawn’s mind, followed by an unfamiliar stab of longing. He tightened his hands on Eli’s hips, just for a moment, and took a swift kiss from Eli’s open mouth.

“Most of what I found was unhelpfully clinical or unnecessarily pornographic,” Thrawn continued. Eli’s hand clenched in his hair. “And ultimately I concluded that nothing I found was likely to solve the puzzle that most intrigued me.”

“And what was that?” Eli asked, low and rough, his eyes fixed on Thrawn.

“You,” Thrawn said, and Eli groaned. “I have amassed a store of information regarding human sexuality in general, but to learn what arouses you, how your body responds, the path to your orgasm…” He leaned into Eli’s chest, spoke to the muscle there. “ _That_ requires practical knowledge.”

“By all means,” Eli said, gripping Thrawn’s head a little harder.

Thrawn smiled against his chest. The human body seemed to consist entirely of potential erogenous zones, according to the little research he’d conducted and his limited previous experience, but since he was right here...he brushed his mouth over Eli’s nipple, peaked under the thin shirt, and smiled again at the slight catch in Eli’s breathing. A pleasing result, but as he continued to caress the nipple with his mouth and Eli showed few signs of increased arousal, he became less pleased.

A new approach, a sudden change in tactics...he bit down sharply and Eli moaned, his body contracting and his hands shoving Thrawn’s head firmly against his chest.

Thrawn held the pressure for a few long seconds, long enough for Eli to take three shallow desperate breaths, then released, and Eli’s muscles went slack. He pushed Thrawn’s head away and scrabbled at the hem of his shirt, untucking it with clumsy fingers and tearing it off over his head before pulling Thrawn back to him.

Eli’s nipple was hard and red from Thrawn’s teeth, the bite marks standing out livid around it, and his skin was soft and hot under Thrawn’s tongue as he bit down again. Eli fell back under him, collapsing to the bed, and Thrawn followed, covering Eli’s body with his own.

Skin on skin, flesh on flesh: Thrawn submerged himself in it as he bit and sucked at one nipple and rolled the other between his fingers. Eli’s hands were spasming on Thrawn’s back, his hips straining up as he ground his erection against Thrawn’s torso.

Eli’s body glowed in the infrared as a flush rose on his chest and traveled upward. His nipples were bright spots of heat when Thrawn released them and sat back, standing out against the background radiation of vasocongestion.The sight sent a wave of satisfaction sliding through him as he knelt at Eli’s feet.

Eli scrambled upright again and reached for him. “Why did you stop,” he mumbled, but was kissing Thrawn before he could answer, his knees holding Thrawn in place. Thrawn drew his fingers down Eli’s ribs and kissed back, deep and drowning and airless, a moment like the drop of a ship entering the gravity well of a planet.

“And why are you still wearing clothes,” Eli continued when they broke apart, his voice soft and distracted.

Thrawn brushed his hand across Eli’s stomach, enjoying the flutter of muscle under his fingers, but as his hand dropped lower Eli grabbed it and held it away.

“Nope,” Eli said, eyes clear under the haze of arousal. “No, none of that. Tunic off, now.”

Eli still gripped Thrawn’s hand, so Thrawn groped at the neck of his tunic one-handed, searching for the edge of the sealing strip from the wrong side. Eli reached to help him, and together they wrangled the tunic open.

It would probably have happened faster if Eli had allowed Thrawn the use of both hands, and if Eli didn’t keep stopping to caress Thrawn’s chest, but there was pleasure in the slowness too. The control of revelation, the way Eli’s breath caught and held as the tunic dropped open, the way his eyes narrowed in concentration as they navigated Thrawn’s belt, the way his shoulders dropped and he sighed with satisfaction once they had pushed the tunic all the way off.

Thrawn reached for Eli again, but Eli batted him away. “Let me look at you, sir,” he murmured. He set his hands on Thrawn’s shoulders and dipped his fingers under the straps of Thrawn’s tank top, and Thrawn shivered.

Only the faintest movement, but Eli caught it and smiled.

“You feel good,” he said, and splayed his hands across Thrawn’s shoulder blades, pulling him closer.

Thrawn ducked his head and licked the vein at Eli’s wrist--the skin was so thin there he could almost feel the beat of blood under his tongue--then dragged his tongue up Eli’s arm to the elbow before dipping his head back down to bite at the clasp of Eli’s trousers.

The smell of Eli’s arousal was stronger here, a thick body-smell that Thrawn could almost taste, and a large damp spot was growing on the front of Eli’s trousers. Thrawn rubbed his cheek against it and felt Eli’s cock jump, and Eli’s hands came up to grab at the back of his neck. He pressed his face in again, more firmly this time, and Eli moaned.

“I’m really done waiting,” Eli gasped, and pushed Thrawn’s head aside to tear at his trousers.

“Yes,” Thrawn said, and busied himself with Eli’s boots.

For all Eli’s momentary desperation, his hands slowed when Thrawn drew the first boot off his leg, and he watched with mouth open and eyes hungry. Thrawn pulled the other boot off and turned to set them aside, out of the way, and when he turned back Eli was shoving his trousers and underwear and socks all off together.

Then he was naked before Thrawn, his skin subtly varigated in harmonious shades of brown, those strange human eyes fixated on Thrawn’s face, heat splashed across his chest and pooling at his groin where his cock stood up from coils of dark hair.

Their frantic coupling the previous night, sweet though it had been, had hardly given Thrawn the data he sought. Now, in the light, with Eli spread before him, he looked his fill. Eli’s cock shone with clear fluid that leaked copiously from a slit at the tip--certainly enough to soak through layers of thick uniform fabric.

Thrawn wanted to--but of course he could.

He brushed his lips down the shaft, barely touching, and flicked his tongue out to taste the liquid, noting the stifled groan Eli made deep in his throat at the touch. Slightly bitter, slightly salty--he licked up more, sweeping broad strokes of his tongue from tip to base, and Eli groaned louder.

“Large for a Chiss,” Thrawn said, removing his mouth and measuring the shaft against his hand.

“I’ll fuck you with it later,” Eli gasped, and something hot and shameful shivered through Thrawn, like every single muscle electrified all at once, shocked into burning arousal and then collapsing into Eli, Eli, Eli. He flinched away from the feeling and pulled it close at the same time.

“You like that idea?” Eli asked. He ran his thumbs over Thrawn’s cheekbones, circling around his ears before stroking down his neck. “Because I like it. I _really_ like it.”

Thrawn wet his lips and opened his mouth, but no sound came out: no way to give voice to the furious longing that had sunk thorns into his gut, and no way to express the pure shock that Eli would even suggest such a thing.

Eli wasn’t Chiss, of course. And the Empire wasn’t the Ascendency, and alien hierarchical intricacies still caught Thrawn off guard, after all these years.

But it was Eli--Eli, who had _held Thrawn’s words in his hands_ , who had never guided him wrongly. Of course he would neither know nor care about Chiss sexual conventions, would not connect his subordinate rank to a particular sexual role.

It should not matter to Thrawn either. And yet...

No answer yet possible, and so he buried his head in Eli’s lap, taking Eli’s cock haphazardly into his mouth and sucking hard.

Eli yelled, collapsing back onto the bed and grabbing at Thrawn’s hair. He pushed his hips up against Thrawn’s face and wrapped his legs around Thrawn’s shoulders, mindlessly seeking sensation.

Thrawn gave it to him: stroking Eli’s cock with his tongue and one hand, caressing and squeezing his flank with the other, arching his shoulders so they rubbed against Eli’s legs. He gave Eli skin wherever he could and took heat and sweat and the clench of muscle.

Little tortured gasps were clawing their way out of Eli’s throat now, his hands clenching in Thrawn’s hair. Too close to orgasm, Thrawn thought, pushing through the fog of his own arousal, too close, too soon, when Eli’s words were burning a hole through his mind and the taste of Eli’s cock was still heady in his mouth.

He pulled back with a moan of his own and let his mouth drift to Eli’s thigh, the crease of his hip, where he kissed the exhausted muscle. Eli liked intense sensation, Thrawn remembered: he bit without warning and was rewarded with a buck of Eli’s hips, with Eli twisting his body into Thrawn.

So many options...he glanced up to find Eli propped on an elbow and watching him intently, his eyes wet and dark and a little glazed. Sweat glistened on his forehead and his lips were bitten red and parted, giving Thrawn a glimpse of the heat inside Eli’s mouth.

There was a time for waiting and observing, but better was to act: he pushed Eli farther up on the bed and crawled between his legs; Eli understood his intention immediately and scrambled to make room for him, his legs spread wide. He leaned back on the thin pillow, but his arms and shoulders were tense: stifling the urge to reach out, Thrawn suspected.

Thrawn stripped off his tank top over his head and laughed aloud when an involuntary groan escaped Eli’s lips. The shifting patterns of heat radiating from Eli’s skin, the renewed flood of liquid dripping from his cock, the way his human eyes played hungrily over Thrawn’s body...Thrawn cataloged every detail.

“ _Please_ come here,” Eli begged, the muscles of his arms and stomach tensing in preparation to sit up.

Thrawn forestalled him with a hand on his chest, steadying him against the pillow, then pinned Eli to the bed with his body and kissed him as deeply as he could. Eli moaned into Thrawn’s mouth and squirmed under him, his hands stroking across Thrawn’s back and down his ribs, fingers spread wide as though to maximize the contact between them. They kept kissing: Thrawn tried a few times to pull away but each time fell back in, until there was nothing but Eli’s mouth, nothing but what Eli wanted, and Eli wanted the kiss.

The passes of Eli’s hands grew more intentional, dropping lower and lower on Thrawn’s body until he was slipping his hands into Thrawn’s trousers. He released Thrawn’s mouth and smeared a kiss across his cheekbone, strained up to kiss Thrawn’s forehead ridges, and finally let his mouth drift to Thrawn’s ear even as his hands pushed Thrawn’s trousers and undergarments down his hips.

“Do you want it now?” Eli breathed, and drew a finger slowly along the cleft of Thrawn’s buttocks. He shivered slightly, then trembled with his whole body as Eli’s finger delved deeper. “Talk to me.”

The Empire wasn’t the Ascendency, and Thrawn was a hypocrite: _the balance between two bodies_ , he had thought, and then hardly acknowledged that balance when it was offered, adhered instead to his own projection of how this liaison would play out, rather than what Eli wanted.

What he wanted himself. Allies, not opponents.

“ _Yes_ ,” he said, and Eli groaned and buried his face in Thrawn’s neck.

“ _Hell_ yes,” Eli said. He tried to push Thrawn’s trousers fully off, laughing when he realized he couldn’t reach. “C’mon, get naked.”

Thrawn pulled back, fixing Eli with an attempt at a glare. “Was that an order, Lieutenant Commander Vanto?” he asked.

Eli’s face lit with a grin. “What if it was, Admiral?” he asked, pushing Thrawn off his lap and sitting up. “What’ll it be--the brig?” He kissed Thrawn hard, their teeth clacking together. “Demotion?”

“Court martial,” Thrawn said, and Eli burst out laughing.

“Well, we have experience with _those_ ,” he said. “In the meantime, _sir_ , I think I gave an order.”

Together they shoved the rest of Thrawn’s clothes off, kicking them off the side of the bed to lie in a crumpled pile. Eli ran his hands greedily over Thrawn’s exposed body, learning him by touch, and stared unashamedly at Thrawn’s cock.

It was different enough from a human’s, Thrawn supposed, that it would be interesting to Eli, although the underlying anatomy was essentially the same. But of course, he was interested in every minute detail of Eli’s body. It was only sensible that Eli would extend him the same curiosity.

“I want that in me next time,” Eli said. He palmed Thrawn’s cock and bit his earlobe.

Thrawn hummed in pleasure. “Demanding, but I think I can oblige,” he managed after a moment, his voice coming out strained and hoarse.

“Thanks for your condescension,” Eli said, before dragging Thrawn back down to the bed and kissing him with a laughing mouth.

“Do you have lube somewhere?” Eli asked after a long hot moment.

“No,” Thrawn said. “However, I believe artificial lubricant will be unnecessary.”

He guided Eli’s hand down to his cock and showed him how to stroke, showed him how to press his fingers into the sensitive underside, and after a few moments the quiet shivering sensation of his first orgasm washed over him, coating his groin and Eli’s hand with slippery ejaculate.

“Oh,” Eli said. His eyes were almost comically wide. “Yeah, I think this’ll work. Are, you, uh. Done?”

“Find out, Commander,” Thrawn said, nodding to where his cock stood erect still.

Eli’s mouth slackened in brief confusion, then widened in a predatory grin. He slipped his hand back behind Thrawn’s cock, probing and exploratory and wet with the ejaculate, and grinned wider when Thrawn pushed back against his fingers.

Eli was always adaptable, Thrawn reflected, just before Eli slipped a finger inside him and his line of thought was cut off. He moaned instead, a quiet sound of surprise and pleasure.

Fingers weren’t quite enough, though, not entirely what Thrawn wanted.

“Like this,” he said, turning on his side and pulling Eli to lie snug behind him.

Eli’s body was warm and his cock pressed slickly between Thrawn’s buttocks, and he kissed Thrawn’s shoulders like he couldn’t help himself, like any moment they weren’t touching in every way they could was wasted.

Thrawn felt the slide of Eli’s hand as he gathered the remaining ejaculate and spread it along his cock. “Bear down,” Eli murmured, and Thrawn pushed back with his inner muscles even as Eli pushed forward, and then Eli was inside him, centimeter by centimeter.

His eyes had closed; he opened them, then closed them again when he realized there was nothing to see. He focused instead on the quiet noises of Eli’s breath next to his ear, the heat of Eli’s chest, the rising pleasure as Eli pressed further in.

“Doing okay? Can you take more?” Eli asked.

He sounded dazed and slurred, drunk with lust. Thrawn reached back, feeling none too steady himself, and grabbed Eli’s hip and pulled. They both moaned as Eli pushed in the final few centimeters, one endless delicious slide, and Thrawn fisted his hands in the sheets even as Eli stroked across his torso.

“You will not break me, Lieutenant Commander,” he growled, and Eli gasped as he pulled back and thrust again, slow and steady.

Years, it had been years since Thrawn had allowed himself this luxury, years since this indulgence had befitted his position. But his body knew this, his body craved it, ravenous and greedy, and he ground his hips back and dragged Eli’s hand back down to his cock almost without thinking about it.

Eli’s fingers curled around his cock, stroking and caressing with sure movements, and Thrawn writhed, pinned between the slow-building pleasure of Eli inside him and the bright darts of sensation that came from Eli’s strong hand. He hung there for long moments, Eli’s body gliding against his and his breath catching in his mouth, until his second orgasm built up and burst, sending heat racing along his limbs.

Eli’s arms tightened around him. “Stars, Thrawn,” he murmured, and kissed Thrawn’s neck sloppily. “Can we just--I need--”

He pulled out--an embarrassingly disgruntled sigh escaped Thrawn’s mouth--and pawed at Thrawn’s shoulders until he took the hint and lay on his back. Eli climbed between his legs and kissed him, mouth hot and needy, then pushed in again.

Thrawn’s legs came up to wrap around his hips without his conscious direction and Eli let out a laugh that was perilously close to a giggle. “I need to see you,” he breathed, and began to fuck Thrawn again, faster now.

Thrawn’s cock ached for lack of touch: the two orgasms he’d had already were nowhere near his body’s limit, were in fact hardly sufficient by Chiss standards. His body thrummed with conflicting sensations: post-orgasmic lassitude weighing down his limbs, Eli’s cock within him a relentless stream of pleasure, his spine shooting sparks as his body coiled itself up in arousal again, the pressure of Eli’s eyes, fixed on Thawn’s face and glazed with lust.

That gaze was almost too intimate, too intense; he closed his own eyes and reached between their bodies. He’d prefer Eli’s hand, craved Eli’s touch on every inch of him, but Eli wanted to see him, and Thrawn wanted that too.

He stroked harder, winding himself to a higher peak, barely aware of Eli’s mouth moving from his neck to his shoulder, his ear, licking and kissing. Distantly, he heard himself moaning, gasping raggedly with every thrust, in counterpoint to Eli’s heavy panting breaths and the slick sounds of their bodies moving together. Tighter, tighter, the pleasure built, until his legs spasmed and his entire body convulsed as he came a third time, wrapped around Eli and straining upwards for his touch.

“ _Fuck me_ ,” he heard Eli murmur somewhere far away from where he drowned in expanding waves of sensation, his muscles clenching and relaxing in time with the shivers that swept up and down his spine.

There was something smooth and hot under his hands: it was Eli’s back, and it flexed in a steady rhythm as Eli fucked him gently and slowly, taking his time, letting Thrawn come down from the heights.

Just as before, though, Eli’s steadiness did not imply a lack of tension: Thrawn gripped him by the hips and pulled him up for a kiss, and felt the humming energy Eli was barely containing. He had been so patient, so good.

“Eli,” he said. His voice was rough; he must have yelled in climax without realizing. “It’s time for you to come.”

“Gods, yes, thank you, _thank you_ ,” Eli groaned, and began thrusting hard, taking from Thrawn’s body with delightful abandon, his breath coming heavier and heavier until he was sucking in air desperately and moaning with every exhale. Thrawn threw his head back and clutched at Eli’s shoulders, and let the slide of Eli’s cock spiral him back up the heights.

Eli’s moans grew louder, than quieter, until he was almost silent, his eyes screwed shut and his sweat-soaked hair falling into his face, totally focused on his own orgasm. Thrawn came again as he watched, a low sweet peak that hit him unexpectedly and receded just as fast. But it was Eli’s turn now, and so he smoothed his hands down Eli’s sides, reached up to pinch a nipple, and Eli came with a long gasp that turned into a keening moan, his body shuddering as he emptied himself into Thrawn.

They rode the aftershocks out together, Eli panting and twitching atop Thrawn, until his body stilled and he rolled to the side. He sprawled awkwardly on the bed, jammed between Thrawn and the wall, an arm thrown over his face.

Thrawn let himself stare, let himself drink in Eli’s bitten throat and heaving chest, decorated with splotches of red in the visible spectrum, and his softening cock, still glowing hot from where it had been buried inside Thrawn. The sight stirred something in his own body, one last vestige of arousal, and he burrowed against Eli, seeking a final drop of pleasure.

Eli turned towards him and pressed close, his hand groping for Thrawn’s cock. A few stokes, a biting kiss against his collarbone, and he shook with a last small orgasm, his body finally wrung dry.

Through the haze, he felt Eli’s fingers dragging through the mess on his stomach, Eli’s head lifting curiously before dropping again, his nose stuck in Thrawn’s armpit. He was probably wondering about the changed consistency of ejaculate, Thrawn thought vaguely, and made a note to explain.

Later. Much later.

He wrapped his arms around Eli, pulled him close, and felt him breathe.

After a moment the calculations that always ticked along at the back of his brain became too loud to ignore. “Eli, we must discuss-”

“Shh,” Eli said. He wriggled an arm out from between their bodies and clumsily covered Thrawn’s mouth. “I know. And we will. We’ll have a long conversation and ultimately we’ll decide that none of it matters.”

“It matters,” Thrawn said.

Eli sighed and closed his eyes. “I know,” he said. He caressed Thrawn’s face, his touch light and soft. “But I don’t know if it matters the way you think it does.”

Thrawn drew breath to reply, then made himself exhale. Let Eli’s skill at improvisation carry them for now. Really, he had only one immediate question.

“Are you satisfied?” he asked after several long minutes.

“Mmf,” Eli mumbled. He let his arm slip down to Thrawn’s shoulder and curled close. “I am never having sex with anyone else ever again.”

“Good,” Thrawn said. He waited. “Eli?”

He looked down.

Eli had fallen asleep. He lay on his side, one arm thrown across Thrawn’s body, the other tucked under the pillow, his mouth slightly open.

Thrawn kept very still, as though by keeping his body still he could also arrest the emotions that were storming through his chest, the desperate longing to keep Eli _there_ , to hold him close forever, though he knew he could not.

Well, Eli might have something to say about _that_ , too. It was all about balance.

Ten minutes left of the false comm consult, ten minutes left of privacy.

They could lie together a little longer.

**Author's Note:**

> Detailing my Chiss orgasm headcanons in-fic would have broken the flow, so you get them in an end note:
> 
> Chiss with dicks: have between 3 and 6 orgasms on average. The composition of the ejaculate changes over the course of the orgasm cycle, and the most intense orgasm is usually in the middle. Early orgasms are mostly lubricant, middle ones are mostly semen, and later ones are a more viscous fluid that helps hold the semen inside the vagina (this is very dehydrating. In about 5 minutes Thrawn's gonna need a Gatorade).
> 
> Chiss with vaginas: typically have only one orgasm, but it lasts between 6 and 12 minutes, so it's a pretty good deal.


End file.
